Today's health-conscious consumers are constantly looking for ways to cut calories from their diets without sacrificing taste. As a result, many lower calorie food and beverage products have been created. These products are able to offer the consumer fewer calories because some of the sugar in the product is replaced by artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame. However, these lower calorie products are still not acceptable to many consumers who wish to limit their intake of artificial sweeteners.
It has been discovered that certain naturally-occurring compounds called terpene glycosides, are non-caloric and intensely sweet. This is a very exciting development which means that certain botanical compositions, which contain terpene glycosides, may be used in food, beverage and health care products to deliver low-sugar and low-calorie alternatives to the products currently available to consumers.
Terpene glycosides exist in a variety of plant and botanical sources. One excellent source of terpene glycosides is certain members of the Cucurbitaceae family, and in particular, luo han guo fruit, otherwise known as Siraitia grosvenorii. 
Luo han guo fruit is produced by the S. grosvenorii plant found in southern China. The ripened fresh fruit has a pleasant fruity odor and an intensely sweet flavor. If left to stand for a few weeks without processing, the fresh fruit will degrade. Luo han guo contains triterpene glycosides called mogrosides, which impart the intense sweetness to the fruit. Specifically, luo han guo has been found to contain Mogrosides IV and V, 11-oxomogroside V and siamenoside I. In a purified state, these compounds have sweetness potencies approximately 200400 times greater than sucrose (dry solids basis). For example, Mogroside V, the principle intensely sweet component in luo han guo fruit, has a sweetness potency of about 250 times that of sucrose.
Traditionally, luo han guo fruits are slowly dried over smoke and stored in the dry state until used. Alternatively, the juice may be concentrated in open kettles to produce candy-like products. The drying process preserves the fruit and removes most of the fresh fruit flavor. The drying also causes the formation of bitter and astringent off-flavors and may impart dark colors to the fruit and extracts made thereof. These off-flavors and colors often prevent or limit the use of the dried fruits and dried fruit extracts to the preparation of dilute teas and soups and products to which sugar, honey, and the like are added.
Moreover, luo han guo is seldom consumed as the fresh fruit due to the intense sweetness. The fresh juice is seldom used because of its instability and the resulting off-flavors that can rapidly develop. On crushing the fruit for the purpose of collecting its juice, an unpleasant vegetable odor and off-flavor generally results. Furthermore, the fresh juice of the luo han guo fruit has a natural pH of about 6 and it contains sugars which brown and ferment over time. Also, pectin present in the fruit may gel upon standing.
Additionally, luo han guo fruit must generally be peeled and seeded prior to use to prevent the formation of off-flavors that result from a reaction between the peel and seeds and the juice. Not only does peeling and seeding the fruit take additional time, it also adds expense to the preparation process.
There is, therefore, a need to provide an improved process for producing sweet juice, juice concentrate, and dried juice products, made from plant material containing terpene glycosides that overcomes the aforementioned problems traditionally associated with processing such plant material, and in particular, overcomes the need to peel and seed luo han guo fruit prior to use.